Machine



H. LBALLARD. KNITTING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED FEB- 7..)920.

M m, M600i/VM Patented Aug. L 1922.`

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'Mhlllwf STMWMS naar entre HERBERT T. BALLARD, 0F NORRISTOWN,PENNSYLVANA.

nm'r'rine nacnrnn.

T o all whom it may concern Be it known that l, HERBERT T. BAL- LARD, asubjectof the King of Great Britain, andv resident of the city ofNorristown, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Knitting Machines, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention is designed to produce a knitted fabric having a certainstructure adapting it to be used as a vdrapery,'scarf or for otherpurposes. l i

The fabric produced is also a partof the present invention.

In the accompanying drawing,

Figure l is a side view of a part of a knitting head embodying myinvention.

l Fig. 2 is a-view looking from the right of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a view of another form of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a view ofanother detail.

Fig. 5 is a View of a part of the fabric.

Fig. 6 is a viewof a modified fabric.

In these drawings, l indicates a main yarn guide having an eye 2 fordirecting the yarn to the needles, there being two rows of these forknitting rib. The needle dial is indicated at 3 and the needle cylinderat 4. l

rl`he yarn is supplied to the ordinary yar guide by means adapted tofeed two yarns and shift the positions of these yarns relative to eachother. This means may assume different forms but l have shown one formas illustrative of the principle of the invention and not in arestrictive sense.

@ne of the yarns is fed by a finger 5 and the other by the linger 6, Thefinger 5 is pivotally mounted at 5 to any suitable form of Abracketwhich may be in the form of an attachment to the machine. rrllhis ringerhas an eye for directing one of the yarns. The second finger 6 ispivoted to the bracket at t5 and it is pivotally connected to the otherfinger at 6, the arrangement being such that when the iinger 5 is swungupwardly from the position shown in l, the finger 6 will be swungdownwardly and these lingers will in these movements cross each other sothat iinger h'- will occupy the uppermostposition ii. ga., 6 thel-owermost position. The a e oper-- ated by anver lly movable C 'iconnected to the linger by a pin The pin Y "i on 'the operated by canimeans if -upper surface of the block.

of the downward movement is such that the v upper surface of a toothedwheel-10 which meshes with the. stems of the cylinder needles to beoperated thereby. The pin is pressed down byl a leaf spring 11, when thelow part 9 of the cam cornes under it. The effect of this change in theposition of the feedingers is to bring first one yarn and then the otherto the surface of the position to the other the line of pattern atltheright hand edge would not be irregular and would be clearly defined,but as I separate them widely on one movement but on the next movementdo not separate them widely, the two yarns run in more nearly paralleland either one or the other is liable to appear on the surface and forindeterminate periods or for indeterminate` lengths of the courses andhence the structure will be varied. v

Somewhat of the' same effect will be secured if we separate the lingerson each change or movement to the same degree but make one change slowlyand the other rapidly or quickly. The underlying feature is to get avariation in the successive changes in the fingers in order to producethe result.

` In order to get the vchanges above mentioned, the block 2O carryingthe operating pin may be set on its post so that the pin will be raisedby the cam to get a wide separation but on the down stroke the fall ofthe operating pin is limited by any suit.

able form of stop.

in the present case the cross pin 8 which connects the operating pinwith the lingers will serve to stop by coming against the The stopping'in this of machine, the toothed Specieation of Letters Patent.Pgygggmtd Aug, jl, 122u Application led February 7, 1920. Serial No.356,808. v l

wheel may have teeth dividing evenly into the cylinder needles in whichcase the line at the left, Fig. 5, would be vertical, or if the wheelhas an uneven number of teeth not a multiple of the cylinder the changeswill lag, or vlead and the pattern will be formed diagonally, as shownat b.

The cams and toothed wheel may also be used for changing the structureof the fabric y .and connects with the wing cam of ordinary form andwhlch 1n ordlnary practlce 1s e111-- ployed to project the needles partway for tucking and all the way ,for knitting.

When the pin 12-rides on the high parts 9, 9', of the carin-.the wingcam will be adjustedl towards the center of the head so that then thedial needles will project only part way and tucking will result, butwhen the low part of the cam comes under the pin a spring 17 will pullthe operating connection radially outward andthe wing `cam will thenassume knitting position and ordinary plain rib will be produced. Asecond plain feed is indicated generally at 18, this doing knitting allthe time.

With the complete attachment involving the yarn changing mechanism andthe mechanism for doing tuck and plain knitting the same cam 9, 9answers for both functions, i. e., changing the yarn and also changingthe fabric structure from plain to tuck and ifthe toothed wheel has sucha number of teeth compared with the number of needles that the latternumber isnot a multiple of the former, then lthe change in the structureboth as regards tuckand plain work resulting from shifting the wing camand the predominance of either one color or the other will take place ina spiral lire around the tubular fabric because of the lag or lead, asthe case may be, resulting from the uneven divisionof the number ofteeth of the wheel into the number of cylinder needles which drive thetoothed wheel', and furthermore the irregularity in the lengths of thechanges of color in the courses will be present in this tuck and plainstructure as would be the case if plain rib were knit.

Instead of employing two fingers as shifting yarn guides., I may employa disc 19 having two guide eyes and by vgiving this disc a back andforth rotary movement either one yarn or the other will be broughtuppermost and will appear on the surface of the fabric. rThis dis:l maybe operated from the cam 9, 9 in any suitable manner.

In order to protect the' yarn as delivered by the ringer which is in itsinnermost posi tion, I provide a guard 21 consisting of a strip of metaloverlying the projected dial needle so that the yarn will pass over thisguard lfrom the lowermost finger and thus will not be caught in the dialneedle.

By employing another special feed like that above described having thetwo fingers and its controlling Amechanism and in which the toothedwheel has a differentnumber of teeth from that of the wheel abovementioned at the feed already described, a. second stripe can be made inthe fabric running around the same in the opposite direction from thestripe illustrated in F ig. 5,

and I have shown a smallportion of such fabric diagrammatically in F ig.6. Either one or the other of the stripes made by the two special feedsmentioned may runvertically instead of diagonally, for which purpose theteethof the wheel at this particular feed would divide evenly into thenumber of needles.

This second feed also could have the same i arrangement shown in Figs. 1and 2 for controlling the wing cam at this second feed so that tuck andknitting stitches would be formed in the manner previously described.

I claim:

1. In combination with a main yarn guideshift at predetermined points tomake'a sub'-` stantially straight edge change in the pattern and theother yarn at the other shift appearing on the surface of the yfabric atindeterminate points to make an irregular edge to the pattern and means-for repeatedly shifting the yarn guides during the knitting of each ofa plurality of courses, substantially as described.

2. In combination with a main yarn guide, a set of dial needles, a setof cylinder needles, and supplemental yarn guide means to deliver twoyarns to the main yarn guide, said supplemental guide means beingmovable to present first one yarn and then the other yarn uppermost anda guard for protecting the lowermost yarn from contact with the dialneedles, substantially as described.

3. In combination with aknitting machine, a main yarn guide, asupplemental yarn guide adapted'to deliver two yarns to the needles andto reverse the position of said yarns whereby each at times will beupper most. a toothed wheel with means for operating the supplementalyarn guide means from the said ti'iothed wheel. said toothed wheelhaving such a number of teeth that the number of cylinder needles willnot be a multipie 'thereof so that the changes effected by thensuppleniental yarn guide. willi occur Maaate spirally around -a fabric,substantially as described.

.4. lln combination with a knitting machine, a toothed wheel driven fromthe rotary member of the machine a cam carried by the toothed wheel,connections from said cam to the wing cam of the dial for setting iteither in tuckmg or knittin position, a supplemental yarn guide adgaptedto deliver two yarns to the needles and means tor operating the saidsupplemental guide from the toothed wheel, so that either one or theother of the yarns will 'be uppermost, substantially as described.

5. ln combination with a rib knitting machine, a yarn guide, asupplemental yarn guide adapted to deliver two yarns to the main guide,a wing cam in the diall adapted to be set in either knitting or tuckposition, a toothed wheel driven from` the machine, a cam on the toothedwheel, a pair of pins vertically .movable and operated from the cam, oneof said pins having connection rwith the wing cam for setting it intucking or knitting position, and the other pin having connection withthe supplemental yarn guide to change it from one position to the other,so that tirst one yarn and then the other yarn will be uppermostsubstantially as described.

6. ln combinatlon in a rib knitting machine, a wing cam in the dial, amain yarn guide, a supplemental yarn guide to direct two yarns to themain yarn guide, a toothed wheel driven from the machine, and meansoperated by the toothed Wheel for adjusting the wing cam to makealternate portions of tuck and plain rib in the courses, and to shiftthe yarns in respect to the main yarn guide, to produce a substantiallystraight edge change in the pattern at one shift and an indented edge inthe stripe or pattern atthe other shift of the yarn guides,substantially as described.

ln testimony whereof, ll ax my signature.

nnnennr r. nannten.

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